The latest Boeing and aerospace news, including updates about the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, 747-8 and 737, Airbus A380 and A350, the anticipated Boeing 797 and Boeing jobs and layoffs

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787 and Spirit AeroSystems

Spirit AeroSystems Chief Executive Jeffrey Turner provided some revealing details Wednesday about its 787 production, information that has not been previously disclosed.

He told an investment conference, the same conference in Miami that Boeing CFO James Bell addressed on Tuesday, that Spirit was to have provided Boeing with 45 787 nose sections this year.

But Spirit won’t know, until Boeing comes out with its revised delivery schedule, how many it will end up delivering in 2008. Spirit is seeking compensation from Boeing for the late 787 deliveries, as are other Boeing suppliers and partners.

Here is part of a Bloomberg report of Turner’s remarks.,

“We continue to do well on that program,” Turner said today. “We continue to be ready with our part of the production to support the program. There is near-term uncertainty in the program in terms of the specific schedule.”

If Spirit were to only deliver 20 to 25 nose sections for the 787 this year, instead of the 45 planned, that would cut sales by between $175 million and $225 million, Turner said. It would cut per-share profit by between 5 cents and 10 cents, he said.

Also, in my Aerospace Notebook, I speculated on how a sweeping consolidation of the U.S. airline industry might play out with Boeing and Airbus future orders. Delta, for example, a loyal Boeing customer, may hook up with Northwest, one of the key Airbus customers in the U.S. And Continental, another Boeing fan, could then merge with United, which has favored Airbus in recent years, at least for its narrow-body needs.

Would these mergers help or hurt Boeing or Airbus? Richard Aboulafia believes that Airbus could face more risk. Another analyst says the mergers would change little in the way of future airline orders. I’m not so sure.

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